Idaho Company to Sell CBD Products After Finding Loophole

Since Welcomed Science discussed its plans to open a CBD-only store, quite a bit of discussion has started. Idaho code says it’s illegal to sell any portion of a marijuana plant except for the mature stalks. Mike Larsen’s loophole is exactly that code as the CBD in his products is derived from mature hemp stalks.

Larsen is working with a company in California that isolates the CBD from mature hemp stalks, according to KTVB 7 News.  None of marijuana’s other ingredients like THC and other compounds are in Welcomed Science’s products.

Larsen said, “So all of our products are derived from mature stalks of plants. So not from the buds or the leaves or anything else.”

Larsen said, “They extract just the CBD from the plant. The CBD molecule itself. They break it down and extract that out and then we infuse that into the products themselves. So there’s no THC anywhere in our products.”

The Idaho Office of Drug Policy says that CBD is illegal in Idaho.

Elisha Figueroa with the Office of Drug Policy said, “CBD is illegal according to Idaho law and according to federal law. So with or without THC, CBD is illegal.”

Larsen, nor the company, plan to move forward with plans to open.

Larsen said, “The products that we’re selling with no THC that are derived from mature stalks have always been legal in Idaho. There’s never been a time when they weren’t. It’s just a matter of going through all the necessary steps to produce a product that is effective ad still within those bounds.”

Figueroa argues that the state’s previous experience with similar products puts them outside the bounds.

She said, “As law enforcement has confiscated those products and had them tested, often times they are coming back not including CBD or including THC or including other synthetic drug that is not related to marijuana.”

She also claims that online research says that CBD can only be obtained from marijuana flowers.

She said, “The issue being that when you look at research in how CBD is made the experts will tell you that it’s made from the flower of the plant, which is absolutely marijuana.”

Larsen’s products are all tested at Harrens Lab in Hayward, California.

Larsen said, “All of our products are batch tested, every batch is tested to ensure that it’s THC free.”